Game developer's lost Russian rover is found

A missing Russian lunar rover, owned by a British-born gaming entrepreneur, has been found.

A professor of geography, Phil Stooke, solved the 37-year-old space mystery of the disappearance of the Lunokhod 2 using images released by NASA. The British researcher, who works at the University of Western Ontario, studied thousands of images captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and released on Monday.

The LRO is capturing data, including images, radiation levels and lunar temperatures, which will be used to create a comprehensive map of the moon's surface.

Stooke told Wired: "We did know approximately where the rover was but the craft itself and its tracks had not been seen before." He created a searchable image database of the thousands of images released and, using data he had collated for his own 1997 publication, The International Atlas of Lunar Exploration, he pinpointed where the rover could be. "I found which images would be looking at that site and saw the tracks made by the Lunokhod 2 immediately."

"We can also see where it drove into a small crater, and accidentally covered its heat radiator with soil as it struggled to get out again. That ultimately caused it to overheat and stop working. And the rover itself shows up as a dark spot right where it stopped," he says.

However, in a strange twist of fate, the rover is actually owned by a British-born gaming entrepreneur.

Richard Garriott, who created the Ultima Online multiplayer game, bought the Lunokhod 2 in a Sotheby's auction in New York in 1998, despite the fact that it was lost on the moon somewhere. He hadn't heard that the craft had been discovered when Wired spoke to him.

Son of NASA explorer Owen Garriott, he became a second-generation American astronaut when he travelled to the International Space Station in October 2008. He was also only the second person to fly into space wearing a Union Jack. Garriott told Wired that he was excited about the prospect of seeing the photograph showing the craft. He added that he is currently "the only owner of an object sitting on a foreign plantary body" -- and pointed out that while countries are prevented from buying property on the moon, individuals are not.

Garriott is also on the board for the Google Lunar X Prize, which is a $30 million competition for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, travel 500 metres and transmit video, images and data back to the Earth. The astronaut told Wired that there are bonus prizes for teams that can bring images back of any historical site on the moon, and perhaps this could now include images of the Lunokhod 2.

Stooke says that this is "certainly a possibility". "We now know exactly where the rover is. Someone can see the rover in the image and study the landscape around it to pick a smooth landing site for their craft," he said.

Edited by Nate Lanxon

Comments

So who sues him first for "junk" or littering on the moon. Hazmat Site?

mike

Mar 17th 2010

The arrow on your image is pointing to the wrong crater. The Lunokhod 2 is in the larger crater above and slightly to the right of the one at which your arrow is pointing. You can clearly see the tracks leading to the right side of the crater and the dark spot at the end of the tracks.

Nathan

Mar 17th 2010

I doubt he was the second person to fly into space wearing the Union Jack..... the Union Flag maybe, but not the Union Jack as it, by definition can only be flown at sea (and I don't think the Sea of Tranquillity counts!)

Colin

Mar 17th 2010

Is it too much to expect the journalist to include what the auction price was for the rover?

Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?

Frank

Mar 18th 2010

The position of this spacecraft has been known since the 70s to centimeter accuracy, as it has been a target for laser ranging experiments from earth. It should have been possible to predict the exact pixels in the image where the rover would be found.

Dan

Mar 18th 2010

You have got to be kidding me. I've seen clearer photos of the Loch Ness monster.

Yowich

Mar 18th 2010

The arrow is pointing to the correct location. The rover ran back and forth several times to the crater to the upper right, before swerving to the crater on the left. The tracks are visible (barely) and can be seen a little better if you adjust the contrast/balance and/or look at the photo negative.

Tony

Mar 18th 2010

@ Colin:

"Jack" is just another word for "flag". It's perfectly correct to use the term "Union Jack" to refer to the UK flag, whether ar sea or not. In fact, according to the British Flag Institiute, that is the preferred term.

@Nathan:

The arrow is correct. The rover managed to get out of the crater, it stopped working soon after that due to overheating.

Steve

Mar 18th 2010

Yes Nathan, but can you see that it backed up to the right and then traversed its tracks and then ended up at the arrow point?Not that I know.. But it kinda looks that way..

urgh

Mar 18th 2010

I think it was Helen Sharman (The Girl From Mars) who was the first to fly the Union Jack or whatever you want to call it.

Just to stir the pot a bit, wikipedia says...

(the flag was) given Parliamentary approval in 1908 when it was stated that "the Union Jack should be regarded as the National flag".

That is what this whole thing is about, that details the size of the lunar landers and this Soviet rover can be found. Heck, even the footprints of the astronauts can be seen and the paths that they took when they were walking around can be mapped and charted, with the historical logs from the Apollo missions to note exactly where each astronaut was on a minute by minute basis.

Robert Horning

Mar 18th 2010

i think americans never landed on the moon!!! that's why there is no apollo rover or any flag installed or even falg pole where are they? one more doubt scintiest saying tht ther is no AIR on the moon..if that so when why the flag is flatring horizontally as shownin the TV footage...now Indain Isro and US NASA are telling tht 240 Million Tons of ICe are found at polar region and dark side of the moon!!?

please anybody enlighten on this!!! and thank you!!

prashanth venkataswamy

Mar 19th 2010

It won't be long before they find the evidence of our own landing on the moon....but that won't matter because all you conspiracy nut dumbasses who believe that we never landed there will say that the photos are fake. It's no surprise that half of all Americans have lower than average intelligence.